Fuel-Efficiency Finds: Cars That Get at Least 30 MPG Combined

For City Drivers, EPA Highway Ratings Are Only Half the Story

Fuel efficiency is important to many car buyers these days, and automakers are responding with an ever-growing list of cars and trucks that actually deliver decent miles-per-gallon performance.

Carmakers, though, continue to focus a lot of their advertising dollars on highway mileage, while the fuel-efficiency numbers that should matter most to motorists are the combined fuel economy tallies approved by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Combined fuel economy is the number to watch because few motorists do all their driving at highway speeds. There's a lot of city driving to be accounted for. And for most vehicles (hybrids and plug-in electrics generally excepted), fuel economy drops as stop-and-go driving increases.

Because automakers with gasoline-fueled vehicles that deliver 40 mpg or better on the highway love to tout them, there's an established 40 mpg club, composed mainly of specially equipped, limited-production high-efficiency models.

But for motorists who actually drive in congested city traffic as well as on the open highway, here's a longer, more usable list of cars and trucks that deliver fuel economy of at least 30 mpg on the EPA's combined city-highway scale. The EPA uses a complicated formula that adds roughly 55 percent of the city rating to 45 percent of the highway rating to arrive at the combined rating.

All the members of the 40-mpg highway fuel-efficiency club are included here, but this list of vehicles that deliver 30 mpg or more in combined city and highway driving provides a lot more variety for shoppers in search of significant fuel savings. For shoppers seeking to avoid the use of gasoline and diesel fuel altogether, it also includes vehicles that use such alternative fuels as electricity and compressed natural gas.

These are 2015 model-year cars, and more will be added, along with early-introduction 2016 models, as they debut this year, so keep checking back. There also are a handful of 2014 models here that are carryovers, either because the 2015 models aren't yet in the market or, in the case of the 2014 RLX Hybrid from Acura, because the manufacturer has opted not to offer a 2015 model. Acura will keep the 2014 model-year designation until the 2016 model is ready.

Vehicles new to the list include models from BMW, Hyundai, Porsche and Volkswagen. Two cars back on the list this year after an absence in 2014 are the Audi A3 TDI diesel and the standard Honda Fit. The automakers jumped from the 2013 models directly to 2015 models.

Looking for 2014 models? With just a few exceptions mentioned above, they are listed in our directory of used cars that get at least 30 mpg in the EPA combined mileage ratings.

Why Fuel Efficiency Matters
Assuming gasoline is selling for $3 a gallon, a 30-mpg car with a 15-gallon fuel tank costs $45 to fill. It delivers 450 miles of range for a fuel cost of 10 cents per mile.

A 25-mpg vehicle with a 15-gallon tank costs the same to fill, but delivers less range (375 miles) and the fuel cost rises to 12 cents per mile, which is a 20 percent cost increase.

If the price of gas increases, so do the savings from driving a vehicle that delivers 30 mpg, or 40 or 50 or more. Savings decrease as gas prices drop. Whether the savings will offset the potentially higher price of these more efficient vehicles depends on the size of the efficiency premium, the annual mileage and the number of years you own the vehicle.

In addition to cost savings, there are the intangible benefits that many people value, such as reduced oil use and fewer tailpipe emissions.

Engines that burn less gas or diesel per mile also tend to stay cleaner than their thirstier counterparts, reducing lifetime engine, fuel system and emissions systems repair costs.

Big Is Still Bad for Fuel Economy
There are no pickups, large traditional SUVs or minivans on this list. If you have to tow a boat or haul a soccer team, as of now you can't do it in a 30-mpg vehicle.

But as automakers continue to perfect gas-electric hybrid systems and fuel-saving technologies for gas and diesel engines, the day will come when "big" and "fuel efficient" can peaceably coexist.

On the other hand, there are more than just tiny subcompacts in the 30-mpg-plus segment. Automakers are improving their overall fuel economy and there are a number of compacts, a few midsize cars and SUV-styled crossovers here. There are even six station wagons if you include the Mini Cooper Countryman and the Kia Soul EV in that category, as Edmunds does. All can deliver at least 30 mpg overall, if you mind your throttle foot.

As things now stand in the U.S. market, 71 model lines out of more than 330 on sale for the 2015 model year have one or more trim levels or hybrid or electric-drive variants that deliver combined city and highway fuel efficiency of 30 mpg or more, according to the EPA's formula. This is up almost 16 percent from 64 models in 2014 and is an 82 percent increase from mid-2011, when Edmunds first compiled the list. Another plus: Quite a few 2015 vehicles show improved EPA-rated fuel efficiency over the 2014 versions.

And while in the 2012 model year there was just one vehicle rated at more than 100 MPG-equivalent, there are 11 for the 2015 model year: eight battery-electric cars and three plug-in hybrids.

Pick Your Fuel Source
Most of these vehicles are conventional gasoline burners. But membership in the 30-mpg combined club also includes 25 conventional hybrids (up from 22 in 2014) a dozen diesels and all 22 advanced electric-drive cars now in the market. There are 11 plug-in hybrids and 11 all-electric models. There currently is one compressed natural gas sedan, from Honda, and a single hydrogen fuel-cell electric vehicle, from Hyundai. In the second half of 2015, fuel cell sedans from Honda and Toyota are slated to hit the California market, which is friendly to alternative-fuel vehicles.

Using the List
This list shows vehicles by model, style and engine-transmission combo. The listings are in ascending order of EPA-rated combined city/highway fuel economy. We also supply each car's city and highway fuel economy ratings.

Additionally, when discussing fuel efficiency in vehicles that use electricity from the grid, or alternatives to gasoline and diesel such as natural gas, we denote fuel economy as the gasoline miles per gallon equivalent, or MPGe. Each listing ends with the EPA ratings for the vehicle's city and highway fuel efficiency.

Not all trim and equipment levels of every model qualify for the 30-mpg club. Certain transmissions, larger engines, bigger wheels and tires, and even the additional weight created by lots of extra electronics all can reduce fuel economy.

Vehicles are linked to the most appropriate Edmunds.com review. When one entry includes multiple trim levels, you may notice that the model and fuel economy first shown is not one of the models listed here. That's because there may be multiple styles within a model lineup and the review pages start with the base style, which often does not have the lineup's greatest fuel efficiency.

To get to the trim levels listed in this guide, just click on the vehicle in the review page's viewing window and a menu of other trim levels in the lineup will appear.

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